lundi 26 mai 2014

And Then Everything Made Sense (part 4)

I know: part 3 of this
essay was published three weeks ago... But Spring Arrived At Last! The
crabapple bloomed! The hill was calling me! I spent hours there, marvelling at
everything. And hopefully, my dears, you were also busy outside for similar
reasons :o)

So – we
were talking about the connective power of empathy, and how it happened
(in these cases) through what can only be defined as telepathy.

In one week, the Crabapple went from this state (last year's fruits still on the branches)

to this radiant one :o)

I was already
familiar with telepathy at the time, but only with friends or family. In
fact, it would occur more frequently (yet always in a random sort of
way) if the other person was naturally 'open' to that sort of
thing...

Of which I
could give you dozens of really striking examples (like the day I was writing an
email from the bookstore, to a friend with whom I hadn't spoken with for
several weeks: "I would love to hear your voice, ..." then the bookstore
phone rang – and it was him, not surprised at all by the 'coincidence'). But I
am sure it has happened to you as well :o)

Horses are good at reading human's intentions.This one was very friendly :o)

However, the
mysterious thing that took place repeatedly in the bookstore, as I was
practicing 'seeing' my customers differently, was not 'random', and it
certainly involved people who were not necessarily open to telepathy, or even
to intuitive connexions.

Not to mention
the countless times when Lola came in through her cat door approximately one or
two minutes (which is the time it would take her to travel through
the surrounding garden's fences, then climb up to the third floor's
gallery) after I had wondered what she was doing at the moment.

Unless it was me catching Lola's thoughts when she decided to come home?

So I could see
that all this was real, but wondering how, and why, it was happening.

Then not long
ago, my friend Anne Bécel sent me a link to this striking video. Thus I was
introduced to the work of Anna Breytenbach, an inter-species communicator who
is mainly dedicated to the conservation and protection of wildlife,
particularly in South Africa, where she lives – but also to facilitating our
inborn connection with the natural world.

At first I was
fascinated and moved (in many ways) by the content of the video itself – the
transformation occurring in the black Leopard is very puzzling to watch, and to
consider. So I read the articles and listened to the various interviews
(including podcasts) available on the Website of her organization, AnimalSpirit.org

What is going on behind this broody mask?

To sum it up
quickly: inter-species communication is something that takes place naturally,
on an energetic level – between animal species, but also between insects,
plants and every living being.

Humans are definitely
able to communicate in this way (both actively and passively), with other
people or other species; but our rational side tends to bypass this ability. In
fact, most of the time, our thoughts create a kind of static that prevents us
to be directly in touch with our energetic level of being – where inspiration
or intuition come from, for instance.

The more I
learned about this, the more awe-struck I was. Many intuitions, understandings
and perceptions that I’d had since my childhood, but so far in a kind of random
way, were now falling into place, making sense within a much wider pattern that
encompassed our whole planet.

Fluffy Egret about to land on a Rhino. Can you feel the air under her wings, like armchairs?

As a teenager,
while reading Robert Merle’s book Un animal doué de raison (“a sentient
animal”) – translated in English under the title The Day of the Dolphin – I
discovered that dolphins use a very elaborate language.

I soon became more
generally aware of all cetaceans as truly intelligent, wise creatures, who even go out of their way to save a drowning person, something that moved me deeply
(what made them feel such empathy for us, when some humans actually hunt and
kill cetaceans?)

It must be quite wonderful when this happens to you.

I was also
fascinated by bees, for similar reasons (I felt a strange kinship with
honeybees whenever I saw one), and by elephants – thanks to Romain Gary’s Les
racines du ciel (“roots of the sky”) translated in English under the title
The Roots of Heaven. Interestingly, this title alludes to the irresistible
appeal, within each one of us, of something that goes way beyond our immediate, physical experience of life; it describes our spiritual side, if you will.

At the
same time, it can be understood (as I did) as a metaphor for the elephants
themselves – to me they are like trees walking the earth… And they can
communicate across vast distances, through the ground itself. (Their depth of
understanding, feeling, and communicating abilities are strikingly described, from within, in Barbara Gowdy’s mesmerizing book The White Bone.)

From the publisher : Plunged into an alien landscape, we orient ourselves in elephant time, elephant space, elephant consciousness and begin to feel, as Gowdy puts it, "what it would be like to be that big and gentle, to be that imperiled, and to have that prodigious memory."

Through her
activities, Anna has had many opportunities to communicate with wild elephants, but also with wild dolphins and whales. And she learned
this from both elephants and whales: deliberately, through each of their
migrations, and thanks to their collective presence and knowledge, they are
energetically balancing (or grounding) the planet.

“As the
elephants walk the gridlines and leylines rumbling their songs, so the whales
weave the earth energy lines together under the sea with their calling and
their songs. The stability of the earth’s grid depends on these two species
being allowed to do their very important, selfless work.”

Over the years
– I learned through her podcast interviews – research has finally identified eight
broad patterns that all cetaceans (from whales to dolphins) use in their
respective, highly complex languages. Meanwhile,
other studies have identified, as well, eight patterns in elephant language
(those deep rumblings through the ground).

And they happen
to be the same eight patterns.

I was
astounded by what these two discoveries (on migrations and language) implied – not just about the common wisdom of
elephants and whales, but about the way the world functions… An intricately balanced system in which consciousness and purpose are intimately woven within, and between, every element.

And it is this beautiful, balanced system of which we
mostly are disconnected today, individually and collectively. Given the extend of our agency-gone-wrong, our whole planet is now getting sick (as are so many humans).

These conscious migrations remind me of the ‘Songlines’ followed for millenniaby Aboriginal people in Australia. They still remember them.

Anna herself
is a very grounded and logical person – you can tell this by her voice,
her demeanour, her background, and the way she explains things. Her testimony
and understandings are all the more powerful.

Moreover, as
much as she could be overwhelmed by the amount of distress inflicted to so much
wildlife today, the depth of her understanding truly feeds her action. She
works tirelessly to spread this awareness through workshops in Africa and
elsewhere, where people can develop their inborn interspecies communication
abilities. (Which involves mainly trust and empathy.)

You can imagine being a bee, for instance, coming out of a grass tunnel.You'll experience her sensations, sight and flight. Quite thrilling :o)

This alone is
highly inspiring, particularly for an emotional girl like me.

When people
ask why I am a vegetarian, for instance, and I try to say something about the
appalling conditions in which chickens, pigs or cattle are raised and slaughtered
in the 'meat industry' ( ! ) I get instantly flooded with emotions from
what the animals must be feeling, right now, in these
places – so I have to stop talking. Not very helpful, is it?

Watercolour of a Quail chick I did a while ago.

But if
feelings of distress can communicate to you instantly when you are ‘in tune’
with the animal or person who is experiencing them, the reverse is true: you
can instantly communicate empathy, awareness and kindness, through your sincere
intention to do so – as I had discovered in the bookstore.

Furthermore,
animal communicators don’t need to be in presence of the individual they intend
to connect with – they can do so from anywhere in the world, in fact, as long
as they have enough basic information about them (and maybe a picture) to tune
their 'reception' onto their specific wavelength.

Peaceful and silky.

Anna explains
that this phenomenon can be retraced within the field of quantum physics: every
living being has a unique energetic signature, emitting constant and specific
information that can be perceived instantly, anywhere, regardless of physical
boundaries such as walls, oceans or mountain ranges.

This
means – I realized – that you can suddenly receive feelings
or impressions from someone you know but haven't seen in a while, or even
somebody you 'meet' for the first time through a picture. Which has happened to
me more than once!

Red Cedar (Thuja Plicata) near Vancouver

And now I
understood, as well, why I was overwhelmed both by recognition and longing, over
the years, when looking at pictures representing rolling hills (from places as
different as Wales and Mongolia) or certain trees that I had never met so far:
the ancient, immense Redwoods living in the Pacific coast.

So that's what
it was – I could perceive the specific energy of these hills or trees
through a picture! And it was calling me because I needed to be around that
very type of energy...

Trees in general, and old ones in particular, are keeping a gentle watch on us,something I had known deep down for years, and which is why I was horrified to discover that they were being cut for profit, even today. What if companies were dismantling centuries-old cathedrals in Europe to sell the stones at a high price? Except centuries-old trees can't be replaced, ever. And they are living, sentient, benevolent beings. Anna herself confirmed my intuition during one of the podcasts – trees are protective, and they have immense compassion for other species, our own included, in spite of what is being done to them everywhere.When I met these old, majestic trees at last in person two years ago, it was even more evident.

My friend
Pierre, who was traveling with me, had the same wonderful sensation of being
enveloped by a kind, wise and serene spirit, both ancient and very
present – though he had never felt that way in a French forest (and neither had
I).

It was him, in fact, who mentioned it to me, after we had walked for a while with a kind of hushed awe in the magic woods of Galiano Island, not knowing really where we were, and not worried a bit.

When I began to write this series of posts, it was initially to share with you the meaning, beauty and sense of purpose that Anna's work has let into my life. I had no idea it would evolve in a full story, going back to what
happened to me in the forest one October evening, but in retrospect it makes a lot of sense :o)

However, right after I had published part 2, my friend Marianne mentioned to me a book
that I should really read, so I borrowed it from the library, and here is
synchronicity for you: Anita Moorjani’s story, Dying To Be Me, is not only a life-changing one, it also shines a new light on the 'extended' perception of our world that Anna Breytenbach is describing.

In fact, it helps us understand even
better how, and why, we are all connected in a very real and powerful way, from
the humble moss growing on the front steps, to the child who used to be
completely absorbed in them, and to the adult who now marvels again at their tiny,
exuberant forest.

Have you noticed how the seed of wonder and understanding has been nurtured in my life recently, from Anne and Anna,to Marianne and Anita? And I should mention Milla and Mary as well. Thank you deeply, ladies.

Anita almost died, in 2006, from a final
stage lymphoma, but she came back from her “near death experience” (NDE) after having
experienced with wonderful clarity the meaning, depth and interconnectedness of
all life; the unique magnificence and purpose of each individual soul; and the infinite,
unconditional love that is the source
– and essence – of any of us.

She realized that we are deeply loved no matter
what we do… and we all carry the ability to love in the same unconditional way. Even after she was back to normal life, “I was no longer able to view the world in terms of ‘us’ and ‘them’ – that is,
victims and perpetrators. There’s no ‘them’, it’s all ‘us’. We are all One.”
(p. 109).

She came back to her dying body because she knew that having
access, for the first time, to the magnificent beauty of her true self would
dissolve the very reasons that had caused her cells to become sick in the first
place. Her deceased father and her best friend Soni, whose loving presences she felt
several times during her NDE, gently urged her then to “go back and live your
life fearlessly!”

And this is what
she does, inspiring many people along the way. The link above leads to a wonderful interview with Lilou Macé, who had talked with her on Skype the year before. The difference between the two interviews shows that Anita keeps learning every day from what happened to her (as she underlines in her book) and from our own questions.

Believe me, this is an illuminating, empowering read.

Again, Anita is one thoroughly grounded
woman. Her writing is very thoughtful and pragmatic, and the purpose of her
honest, detailed story is to unlock (somehow) our knowledge that this is
why we are here: to live our life fearlessly, with love and trust.

Our own particular purpose in life simply
unfolds through that process – love and trust (and intuition) being our
constant guides, particularly when we are stressed out, perplexed, afraid or
lost.

This is what came out one day on the paper as I was doodling with a brush and Chinese ink.Kind of a self-portrait as a tree :o)

Sometimes I ask myself “would I do this if I
was seriously ill?” My immediate
response is always revealing: either a resolute Yes or a sincere No… (It
took me three years – and a burnout – to follow my own advice and quit my job. So
many good things have been turning up into my life since I did :o)

The White Pine (Pinus Strobus) gives me peace of mind in any season.The Iroquois or Ganonsyoni, I've just found out, named it the 'Tree of Peace'.

She concludes: “When we’re true to
ourselves, we become instruments of truth for the planet. Because we’re all
connected, we touch the lives of everyone around us, who then affect others.
Our only obligation is to be the love
we are, and allow our answers to come from within, in the way that is most
appropriate for us… Finally, I can’t stress enough how important it is to enjoy
yourself and not take yourself or life too seriously.” (p. 185)

I can certainly see that. Don’t you?

To me this looks like a baby Hazel, and I love hazel trees, so Hazel is her name so far :o)

The beauty of it all, of course, is that my own deep experience of unity in the forest, the Vipassana teachings, Anna's discoveries as an interspecies communicator, and the impressive clarity of Anita's NDE all point out to the same evidence: we are all One – the whole planet. "Connectedness is our birthright", says Anna (and the Cottonwoods). We can talk to the ocean, to the bees, to the dolphins, to our cats and dogs. They are always 'tuned in'. And we should listen to them, too.

Everything we do affects the "great tapestry of life" around us, as Anita puts it. This means that we are gifted with true agency, and it is rooted first and foremost on an intimate level: the way we feel about ourselves can change the external world, because this IS where our strength lies. Each unique person is important in the whole picture.On the contrary, if we keep trying to change ourselves (like we do in so many ways all the time), we are literally depriving the world of our own true beauty. Says Anita. And I totally agree.:o)

These were at my bedside when I endeavoured to write part 1 of this epic post!

I am truly looking forward to all of your comments – feel free to ask about anything that you find unclear, though of course both these amazing ladies have explained the whole concept in a much more elaborate way than I was able to do in a dozen paragraphs.In fact, I would also be curious of your feedback when you've had the time to listen to/read more from Anna and Anita! Though I wouldn't be surprised if some of you are already familiar with their work, or with similar approaches :o)I've set aside a really nice selection of pictures and illustrations for part 3 and 4 in French, too. À bientôt !

I have had to come back and read this over and over again a few times. Thank you for sharing Emmanuelle. At times it is so easy to feel this interconnectedness, this oneness you talk off, and other times, when I'm not in my truth I struggle to feel it. Beautiful words and images.

It's so true, keeping in touch with this oneness of our world is not always easy, and "being in our truth" as you rightly say is an important way to find this connection, although we are often told to "empty" ourselves first. I find that the rational part of the mind is naturally quiet when we are living in joy :o)

This series has been amazing to read. Your descriptions of deep intuition, of non-verbal communication and connection, really resonate with me. When I have time, I'd love to tell you more about how reading this makes me feel, perhaps via email, but for now, I would just like to thank you once more, for your openness, your kindness, the inspiring words. Thank you.

Milla dear, I was thinking the other day about how much I would like to have a long talk with you on these topics, somewhere in my secret garden at twilight ;o)

So yes, I would definitely love to hear more on your thoughts and feelings - in fact I often feel that you and Mary are way ahead of me when it comes to being aware of our general situation on this earth, and I've struggled to find the right balance between knowing, understanding, finding a meaning and, most of all, finding the right way for me to remain fully alive and loving in the midst of it all.

My belief is that by cultivating individually love and heirloom seeds :o) as much as we can, we can actually put our collective soul into the balance, therefore tipping the scales unexpectedly for milestone changes to happen, which in turn will lift more people's hearts.

I'm sending you an email right now, just to make sure it works, in case you find the time one of these days :o)

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